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Parental Rule #546: The Vacuum Rule

It may have been cute to come home from work to find my 3-year old vacuuming -- in her yellow and pink undies, no shirt, no socks, hair down, tilting the vacuum such that nothing was being picked up, smiling sweetly at me from time to time with pure pride in her eyes...

It may have seemed like this was the best idea ever -- papa doing the dishes in the kitchen, Alia cleaning her room, Neviyah vacuuming...I was back in the bedroom at the time, changing out of my work clothes.

Until -- the small scream from Neviyah, and Alia's gasping...

Neviyah, in her infinite vacuuming-wisdom, decided to push the vacuum backwards and attempt to feed items into it. When trying to do that, her hair got sucked into the vacuum and wrapped into the rollers.

As I ran into the family room, Rob from the kitchen had already run in, unplugged the vacuum and we both met at Nevi. Her head was stuck right against the vacuum and she was crying hysterically. I tried to gently unroll her hair to no avail.

Rob, like Flash Gordan, made it to the kitchen and back with some scissors. This, dear friends, is how my daughter received her first haircut. SNIP-SNIP-SNIP! And it was done. A chunk of hair in the vacuum; my daughter's head free. Poor Nevi-Nevs cried for about 15 minutes after that. Then she cried some more because she wanted to vacuum again. Go figure!

Parent Rule #546: Do not let your children vacuum without your complete attention at all times!